Washington Group Tests Security in ‘Cyber ShockWave’

A Washington think tank conducted a simulated, 12-hour cyber attack Tuesday that is intended to show how the U.S. government would respond to a similar move against its networks and infrastructure.

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Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff led former officials in the mock cyber attack Tuesday. He said that the officials seemed frustrated with the limitations for dealing with cyber threats.

The “Cyber ShockWave,” hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, began at 10 a.m. ET at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, and is expected to last until 10 p.m. The group, whose advisory board includes Bob Dole and Tom Daschle, said participants will react to the threat in real time, as intelligence and news reports drive the simulation.

Participants are tasked with advising the president and crafting a response to the attack without a prior knowledge of the scenario, highlighting the difficulty of split-second decisions in response to an unfolding and often unseen threat.

Internet-security experts lauded the simulation. “It’s great to see that the U.S. government is taking the appropriate steps to put this type of exercise into play,” said Paul Henry, a security and forensic analyst with Lumension Security. The real measure of the exercise’s success, however, lies in understanding the gaps in the country’s security systems and planning ahead to tackle them, he said.

Amit Yoran, chief executive of NetWitness and former director of the national cybersecurity division at the Department of Homeland Security, said he thinks the simulation is an eye-opener. “This type of exercise is very useful in educating government officials and also in helping the private sector understand what some of the government’s leadership takes into account with the legal authorities,” he said.

In the past few years, the U.S. has proved vulnerable to cyber attacks that have targeted government agencies and departments.

Cyber attacks have steadily increased during recent years, according to a 367-page November report prepared by the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission.

There were 54,640 total cyber attacks against the Department of Defense in 2008, according to the report. In the first half of 2009, the number of attacks targeting the department was 43,785. The report maintained that if the influx of incidents continued for the rest of the year, it would represent a 60% increase over 2008.

The cyber-attack simulation, created by former CIA Director General Michael Hayden and the Bipartisan Policy Center’s national security preparedness group, is led by the co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, former Republican Governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean and former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton.